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Take Heart St. Cloud

Sudden cardiac arrest is the No. 1 cause of death in the United States. Due to this, the Take Heart program works to greatly improve survival rates through a system-based, community-wide approach for faster and better treatment. To carry out this goal, the program began community outreach programs and the newest resuscitation science strategies in greater St. Cloud and Anoka County, Minnesota.

Since the program began, our data has shown that neurologically-intact survival rates for patients admitted to the hospital after cardiac arrest in St. Cloud and Anoka County have more than doubled, from 8.5 percent to more than 19 percent. As of September 2015, the program has saved more than 300 lives, placed 158 AEDs in communities and trained more than 35,000 people in CPR/AEDs.

Take Heart provides the community:

Free one-hour Bystander CPR/AED group trainings. Each group member gets hands-on practice with an inflatable manikin. Note: No certificate is issued.

Information on and help in getting AEDs for buildings.

We highly suggest people learn CPR and AED use. For each minute that passes, the chance of surviving sudden cardiac arrest drops 10 percent. Sign up NOW to learn how to save a life.

Sudden cardiac arrest strikes suddenly and without warning.

Signs include:

Sudden collapse

No response to tapping on shoulder or asking “are you okay?”

Loss of normal breathing

Loss of pulse and blood pressure

What to do - ASAP:

All 9-1-1.

Start CPRPush hard and fast in the center of the chest: 100 compressions per minute. Allow chest to fully rise after each compression. If willing after 5 minutes, give two breaths mouth-to-mouth for every 30 compressions.